by Michael Penkman.
Published Tue 09 Aug 2011 12:45, Last updated: 2011-08-09
Renowned activist, scholar, author and professor of Africana Studies
at California State University, Dr Maulana Karenga will be delivering
the prestigious Slavery Remembrance Day lecture.
The lecture, titled Engaging the Holocaust of Enslavement: The Ethics
of Remembrance and Reparations, will be given by Dr Maulana Karenga at
Liverpool Town Hall on Monday 22 August.
Helen Robinson, National Museums Liverpool's head of communities,
said: "It is very exciting to have Dr Karenga in Liverpool to give
this important lecture.
"He is a leading scholar in Africana Studies and a major figure in the
Black Power Movement and has made a considerable positive impact over
decades of social change."
He is perhaps best known as the creator of the pan-American holiday of
Kwanzaa, celebrated by millions throughout the world and authored the
authoritative text on the holiday - Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family,
Community and Culture.
An internationally recognised activist scholar, Dr Karenga has played
a role in Black Movements during the 1960s and thereafter - from the
Black Power, Black Studies and Black Arts Movements to the Reparations
Movement and the Million Man March, for which he wrote the Mission
Statement.
Dr Karenga is also the executive director of the African American
Cultural Center and the Kawaida Institute of Pan-African Studies.
He stated that he looks forward to lecturing and participating in
Slavery Remembrance Day commemorations.
He said: "It is a conscious commitment to remember and always honour
our ancestors who gave their lives so that we could live free, full
and meaningful ones.
"As the honoured civil and human rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer
said, 'there are two things we always should care about—never to
forget where we came from and always praise the bridges that carried
us over'.
"Thus, these commemorations rightly reflect the conscious practice of
a morality of remembrance of one of the greatest holocausts in human
history."
Dr Karenga holds two doctorates, the first in political science from
the United States International University and the second in social
ethics from the University of Southern California.
He is currently writing a book on the Liberation Ethics of Malcolm X,
a human rights leader who greatly influenced his thinking.
A highly respected senior scholar in Black/Africana Studies and a
board member of the National Council for Black Studies, Professor
Karenga has played a major role in the founding and development of the
subject.
Slavery Remembrance Day is marked every year on 23 August with a
series of events and activities.
This year, the city is observing a two-day programme, beginning on 22
August.
For the first time since commemorations started in 1999, Slavery
Remembrance Day will feature a Walk of Remembrance through Liverpool
city centre, starting at the Band Stand, Liverpool ONE, 1pm.
The free two-day event focuses on the International Slavery Museum and
Merseyside Maritime Museum with activities celebrating African
heritage.
Highlights include a libation ceremony at 1pm, held by Chief Angus
Chukuemeka on the Albert Dock, Pier Master's House grass area.
The service is a traditional African ceremony that remembers enslaved
Africans and calls on ancestors to bless the event.
Campaigner and author of Slave Mende Nazer, US artist Dread Scott,
activist lecturer Cecil Gutzmore and activist and historian Dr Mark
Ledwidge are high profile guests on an African centred panel
discussion.
There are also family-friendly events, which include cultural
performances, learning and craft activities - from spray-can art
workshops to story-telling.
Information and market stalls that provide arts and crafts, and
services for BME groups, will also be part of the programme.
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